Google Maps Has Never Been Accessible On Mobile Internet Explorer

Earlier today there was a flurry of rumours floating around that Google is somehow now blocking Windows Phone users from accessing Google Maps through Internet Explorer. Well, it turns out that that was totally false and untrue.

The mobile browser version of Google Maps was built for Webkit-based browsers, and the mobile version of Internet Explorer is not based on Webkit. So that’s why it doesn’t work and has never worked. Now go on about your business.

Bullpoo. Google maps works fine on Firefox for android, and it doesn't use WebKit.
If you change your User Agent on Chrome (desktop version) to Windows Phone, it get's blocked on there too.
And I don't buy the "it never worked" line. I've heard that it did used to (anecdotal evidence, I know), and besides, if it never worked, whyare we only hearing about it now? Windows Phone has been out for 2 years already. If google maps never worked on it, wpouldnt we have been hearing about it in every WP review, along with how it has few apps?

Apologies, quite correct. To be fair, Nokia is making a big push with WinPhone so it's fairly reasonable that Google don't wish to give them an advantage by having free access to Google Maps too.

Google are closing up on their services because of the success of Android. You might not agree with it, I'm not sure I do, but it is their right as a company. They still provide an AWFUL lot for nothing (yes, I know, advertising and all that)

Yep, they can do it, doesn't mean it's an okay thing to do. Using one of their immensely popular and widely used services (well three if you count gmail and YouTube) to drive people away from a competing platform towards their own doesn't exactly sound good from acompany that used to be all about services that work on all platforms.
I have no idea how anti-competitive law works, but it sounds like that is something that breaks it (again, I have no idea about anti-competitive law though). Google is already being investigated by the EU for anti-competitive practices though (for web search and stuff I think).

No, anti-competitive laws don't apply here- Google Maps is their product and they are not preventing any OTHER mapping service being installed, just their own. It's also free, so competition laws don't apply unless they're physically preventing someone from installing another similar product or forcing people to use their product by default (as was the case with the Microsoft anti-trust suit in Europe)

Google's most recent stoush with the FTC was pretty much just won by Google too. That was about Google promoting their own products (Google+ etc.) over the top of others in search results they provided for a fee for advertisers. FTC essentially said they're not promoting them over the top of others. And they've made an agreement for their patents from Motorola to be fairly accessed (unlike certain tech giants that shall remain nameless, even if Mototrola's WERE primarily FRAND)

Google are in a tight spot- advertising revenue isn't growing like it used to and they're under pressure to make money from their web services for their normal "Googlefied" projects (like self-driving cars etc.) to continue to be funded. There's interesting times ahead. I just hope they keep their goal of making the world's information freely available if nothing else.

Ah, thanks for clearing that up. :)
It's a risky move they're making, I think. Could end up deterring people from their services towards other ones that aim to work on all platforms. Judging by the way the media's been covering everything though, doesn't look like that will happen seeing as though Google are the 'good guys' and MS is 'full of fail'.

Possibly. It's certainly a serious consideration for us power users- I hear Nokia Maps is pretty good and I'd very much like to try WinPhone, but without Google Maps, it's a tough proposition for me even so, especially coming form Android.

I guess time will tell. Microsoft are showering Nokia and WinPhone with money to desperately try and claw back market share in mobile after underestimating Google AND Apple. It's going to be an interesting few years...

@seven_tech Yep, definitely will be interesting. I think MS has a good shot of getting there with how they're integrating their products together. Personally, I can't wait to see what the next Xbox brings because then their 3 screens strategy (or whatever it's called) will be in place. TV, computer, phone. Should be interesting to see how Google/Apple respond. And then you got things like Google glasses.

The first time I read about this, the very first thought that popped in to my head was:
Ah yes, MS IE HTML/CSS/JavaScript incompatibility strikes again. Pissing off web developers since the start of the internet.

I assumed it was something along these lines. Of course Google could work around these issues with the various lengthy work arounds that exist, but why should they when every other browser out there just works without workarounds.

I created a PHP/AJAX CRUD class, and it was an extra 15 or 20 lines of code to simply replace a row of a table because IE deems the innerHTML of rows to be readonly. I had to create a whole new node and add it manually rather than just get PHP to resend the innerHTML for the row >:@ It worked fine in all the other browsers I tried it in though, with simply 1 line.

Well, actually the internet was around for quite a long time prior to HTML, CSS and Javascript, and at the start of the Internet, Web developers didn't exist. Mostly C coders. Also, I recall that Internet Explorer 3.0 was the first browser to market that contained CSS support, and IE 5.0 for the Mac was the first to implement a full set of support for CSS 1.0.

"It certainly seems intentional. If you change the user agent in Firefox (using User Agent Switcher) to "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 10.0; Windows Phone 8.0; Trident/6.0; ARM; Touch; IEMobile/10.0", you get redirected to the google home page.
But if you set the user agent to "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 10.0; Windows Phne 8.0; Trident/6.0; ARM; Touch; IEMobile/10.0" (notice I intentionally mispelled Windows Phone), the maps.google.com page comes up just fine.
In other words, the only way I was able to get it to redirect is to have Windows Phone in the user agent string. So something on Google's side is keying off the user agent for windows phone."

Normally you and I see eye-to-eye on WP-related things, but Maps is one area we will disagree on. On Friday I wanted to get to the Bavarian Bier Cafe in Sydney's Entertainment Quarter. Nokia Maps directed me here: http://her.is/TQUQk

As it turns out, there are two Bent streets in close proximity - and this one is not in the Entertainment Quarter. So I was very confused when I got there... Google, on the other hand, showed me this spot:http://tinyurl.com/b3gz2xy

This is correct. Don't get me wrong, I love my Lumia and there's lots to like about WP7/8. But in many cases Google STILL has better maps, largely by virtue of having better search tech, and without access to Google I would have missed my date.

This kind of thing happens about half the time, such that if I'm going somewhere I've never been before, I have to cross-reference with Whereis and Google. I can't rely on Nokia/Bing maps alone, not yet.

Google has only just begun. I seriously think Google Fiber is going to spread very quickly in 2013-2014, the demand for that service is skyrocketing across the web. Google is also creating their own mobile network, they're future proofing themselves. Staying solely as a search engine businesses model produces only so much revenue.